A nurse puts on protective equipment before entering the COVID-19 department at Santo Spirito Hospital in Rome, Italy, April 12, 2020. (Photo by Alberto Lingria/Xinhua)

"When I found out he died I thought 'We are in a battle and the enemy has killed one of our commanders.'"

ROME, April 16 (Xinhua) -- Around two months ago, Angelo Testa was passing through Rome's Fiumicino Airport when he ran into an old friend and colleague, Roberto Stella, a physician.

"When are you going to finally get around to retiring?" Testa recalled asking Stella, who was 67. Stella told him that he was leaning toward stepping down from his job as a doctor and president of the Order of Physicians of Varese, a city just north of Milan, at the end of this year.

On March 11, Stella died. He was the first doctor in Italy that fell victim to COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus.

"Roberto wasn't a young man, but he was fit and vibrant," Testa, the president of National Union of Independent Doctors, told Xinhua. "His death got the attention of Italian doctors. He was well known and well-liked. It made doctors realize that the coronavirus was something to be taken seriously."

Stella was one of the first to call attention to the lack of masks, gloves, and other protective equipment early in Italy's battle against the virus. But his friends said he would not abandon patients because of the lack of equipment. He told his staff to be careful, that equipment would come, but that they had to keep working.

Alessandro Colombo, a cardiologist at the Luigi Sacco Hospital in Milan, was another friend of Stella.

"When I found out he died I thought 'We are in a battle and the enemy has killed one of our commanders,'" Colombo said in an interview.

Overall, Italy's battle against the coronavirus has claimed more than 21,000 lives. A total of 121 of those victims are from what Pina Onotri, general secretary of the Union of Italian Physicians, called "the frontline soldiers" in the battle -- the country's doctors.

Massimo Gloria, a doctor in the hard-hit northern city Turin, recalled his friend Giulio Titta, a general practitioner who was the 40th doctor claimed by COVID-19 outbreak in Italy. Titta, 70, was technically retired but he never stopped working.

"He was like a throwback to another time," Gloria told Xinhua. "He knew the names of his patient's family members. He always took the time to give advice to younger doctors. He would cover for his colleagues when they couldn't work. He just had a great kind of humanity."

Samar Sinjab, born in Syria, was the 100th doctor in Italy to die from the pandemic. She worked near Venice and raised her son, also a doctor, to follow in her footsteps. She died on April 9, less than a month after Stella became the first victim among the country's doctors.

"She was someone who dedicated herself to helping those in need," Anna Zampieri, a retired nurse who stayed in contact with Sinjab, said in an interview. "She put the well-being of her patients ahead of her own needs."

Franco Pazienza, himself a retired doctor, was a childhood friend of Antonio Maghernino, the 37th doctor to die of COVID-19 in Italy. Maghernino, 59, was a prison doctor who left his position to move to the coronavirus front line.

"His loss is one that leaves a mark," Pazienza told Xinhua. "Everybody liked him. He was good company, jovial, kind, thoughtful."

Maurizio Bertaccini, a 67-year-old general practitioner, was among the most recent COVID-19 deaths, passing away on Tuesday, the 115th physician to die in Italy. According to his friend Maurizio Grossi, the impact of Bertaccini's death might have been different from other victims -- he had ten children: six children who were biologically his, and four others who Bertaccini and his wife of 41 years, Maria, either adopted or were in the process of adopting.

Bertaccini, who lived near the coastal city of Rimini, spent a total of a month in the hospital, the last ten days of which were spent on a ventilator, struggling to breathe.

"The fact that he had so many children was just an extension of who he was," Grossi told Xinhua. "He was warm-hearted and generous and well-loved. He even spent his time working with handicapped children before the virus came to Italy. It's a big loss for his family and also for the community that he was an important part of."